Conservatory blooming with confiscated orchids

April 01, 2003|By Chicago Tribune.

The white orchids crowding the room at the Lincoln Park Conservatory look innocent enough, luxurious flowers that transport visitors to the plants' native Malaysia--but they came to Chicago because they're outlaws.

Most of the plants under Steven Meyer's care come from a catalog, a reputable nursery or maybe a researcher who no longer needs an exotic plant such as a mangrove tree.

The moth orchids blooming in the conservatory, however, were the botanical equivalent of government-confiscated contraband. They came donated to the Chicago Park District as part of a 25-year-old federal government program that spares from the trash bin plants imported illegally and hands them out to 62 botanical gardens and conservatories throughout the country.

"Often these are plants that we wouldn't be able to get, because they are either threatened, endangered or very rare," said Tom Antonio, curator of collections for the parks' conservatories.

Sometimes, as in the case of the moth orchids, the program just saves the conservatories money. Moth orchids, which get their name from their often large flowers, shaped like moth wings, are among the easiest orchids to care for. And orchids are the most commonly imported plants confiscated as they enter the U.S. because a treaty regarding protection of endangered species severely restricts international trade in orchids and cacti.

Lincoln Park's moth orchids came into the United States via Los Angeles, on their way from Vietnam to someone in California, but they lacked the needed paperwork to allow them into the country, said Meghan Thomas, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

They ended up at the conservatory through the Fish and Wildlife Service's Plant Rescue Center Program, which works with USDA inspectors to distribute illegally imported plants after they're confiscated. In 2001, the latest year for which numbers are available, 11,403 plants were given to institutions throughout the country through the program, more than 9,500 of them orchids.